Bonds pass in Ascension

• By C.J. FUTCH
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Oct 18, 2009

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DONALDSONVILLE — Ascension Parish voters approved Saturday the School Board’s $100 million bond issue 5,883 votes to 1,311 — about 10 percent of registered voters — according to complete but unofficial returns. 

Revenue from the bonds will fund a school renovation campaign expected to affect 20 campuses on both sides of the Mississippi River, addressing the inequities in infrastructure at some of the parish’s oldest schools.

“We’re very happy,” Ascension School Superintendent Donald Songy said from his home, where he and other backers of the proposition were watching election returns.

“We’re going to hit the ground running,” Songy said. “Starting at the next School Board meeting, we’ll be getting some projects lined up. This is a victory for the children of Ascension Parish, and we appreciate the support of the voters.”

Songy said the hard work now passes to the district’s Planning and Construction Department. The department will address projects such as electrical upgrades to some of the parish’s older campuses, restroom renovations and a new school to replace G.W. Carver Elementary, built in 1956.

Voters agreed to extend an existing 15.08-mill property tax that now costs property owners with a home valued at $200,000 about $190 a year.

In 2005, Ascension voters approved a similar tax measure that funded the building of five schools in four years; Prairieville and Pecan Grove primaries opened in August 2008, and Spanish Lake, Lakeside and Central primaries this school year.

The School Board will break ground on a sixth primary school in Sorrento on Tuesday, funded by some of the proceeds of a post-hurricane spike in sales tax revenue.

After their 2006 on-site accreditation review, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools noted the disparity in these newer schools and some of the system’s older campuses.

Four schools, LeBlanc Special Services, Gonzales Primary, and Dutchtown and St. Amant middle schools, were built during or before 1937, Songy has said. Carver and Prairieville Middle were built in 1956, and East Ascension High School in 1965.

Updating older electrical systems to accommodate present-day technology was one of several recommendations SACS made.

It’s the beginning of a long-term plan to accommodate the swelling student population that, at just over 19,000 students, has grown steadily, adding students at a pace of about 2 to 3 percent each year for the past 20 years.

Census projections anticipate the parish’s population will double again by 2030, so, Songy said, the system will be in the school-building business for at least the next 20 years.